Combined telephone/ tv remote control

ABSTRACT

When a person arrives home with his mobile phone, the phone sends a presence signal via Bluetooth to the TV system in the home, which enables a telephone feature in which phone calls to the phone are relayed to the TV system. The remote control associated with the TV has a microphone and speaker so that a person can use the RC not only to control the TV but also to respond to phone calls, with the TV system relaying voice signals from the RC back to the phone.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates generally to devices that can be used asboth telephones and TV remote controls.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

TV remote controls are ubiquitous. Typically, viewers watching TV keeptheir remotes close at hand. The same might not be true of telephones,however. Consider that people arriving home may leave their mobilephones in chargers or on countertops or other locations that might notbe nearby the TV, so that they must rise off the couch and seek theirphones to respond to incoming calls.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A TV system includes a TV and a remote control (RC) configured to sendwireless command signals such as to change a tuned-to channel displayedon the TV. The RC also includes a microphone into which a person canspeak. The TV system is configured to wirelessly receive signalsrepresenting telephony signals from a wireless telephone. The microphoneof the RC can receive acoustic signals from a person, and the TV systemis configured to wirelessly send signals representing the acousticsignals to the wireless telephone.

The telephony signals can represent, e.g., a caller's voice. The TVsystem may be configured to receive a presence signal from the wirelesstelephone indicating that the wireless telephone is nearby the TV systemand in response enabling use of the RC as a telephone. This presencesignal can be sent using Bluetooth.

If desired, the RC can include a speaker on which telephony signals aredisplayed. In addition or alternatively, the TV's speakers can be usedto display a caller's voice. The signals representing telephony signalscan be received on Bluetooth and the signals representing the acousticsignals can also be sent on Bluetooth. The TV may act as a relay betweenthe RC and the wireless telephone.

In another aspect, a TV remote control (RC) has a hand-held housing, akeypad on the housing, and a microphone in the housing. A processor isin the housing may receive signals from the microphone and keypad. A TVremote control signal generator is also in the housing and is controlledby the processor to send signals such as channel control commands to theTV. The RC is also configured to wirelessly transmit signalsrepresenting voice signals received at the microphone.

In another aspect, a presence signal is sent via Bluetooth from a mobilephone to a TV system. In response to the presence signal, a telephonefeature is enabled in which phone calls to the phone are relayed to theTV system. A user can input voice signals to a remote control (RC)associated with the TV, with the signals being relayed from the RC backto the phone.

The details of the present invention, both as to its structure andoperation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and inwhich:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system in accordance withpresent principles; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of example logic that may be used.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a system is shown, generally designated10, which includes a TV system having a TV 12 and remote control (RC)14. It is to be understood that all of the components of the TV 12 maybe included in one chassis or some components, e.g., a tuner, may beincluded in a set-top box or other ancillary device connected to the TV12.

As shown, the TV 12 includes a TV display 16 such as a cathode ray tubeor flat panel matrix display in standard and/or high definition. Thedisplay 16 is mounted on a TV chassis 18, and the chassis 18 alsosupports one or more audio speakers 20. Programming from a channel tunedto by means of a TV tuner 22 is presented on the display 16 and speakers20.

The tuner 22 may be controlled by a TV processor 24 accessing dataand/or computer instructions stored on a tangible computer readablemedium 26 such as solid state storage, disk storage, or otherappropriate electronic storage. To receive wireless TV commands such aschannel control commands, volume change commands, and the like from theRC 14, the TV 12 typically includes an infrared or other type of TVcommand receiver 28 sending signals to the TV processor 24. Furthermore,the TV 12 may include a short range radiofrequency (RF) transceiver 30such as a Bluetooth transceiver that sends signals to the TV processor24. In the embodiment shown, the TV 12 does not include a transceiverconfigured to communicate with the public telephony system.

Turning to the RC 14, to send TV commands to the TV 12 the RC typicallyincludes an infrared or other TV command transmitter 32 controlled by aRC processor 34. Furthermore, the RC 14 may include a short rangeradiofrequency (RF) transceiver 36 such as a Bluetooth transceiver thatsends signals to the RC processor 34. The RC processor 34 may accessdata and/or computer instructions stored on a tangible computer readablemedium 38 such as solid state storage, disk storage, or otherappropriate electronic storage and may receive voice signal input from amicrophone 40 and output voice data on one or more speakers 42. The RCprocessor 34 may also receive user input from a RC keypad 44. Theabove-described RC components typically are contained on a portablehand-held housing 46.

FIG. 1 also shows that a wireless telephone 48 may communicate with theTV system described above. With more particularity, the wirelesstelephone 48, which may be, without limitation, a global systems formobile communications (GSM) telephone, a code division multiple access(CDMA) telephone, a time division multiple access (TDMA) telephone, afrequency division multiple access (FDMA) telephone, a space divisionmultiple access (SDMA), a wideband-CDMA telephone, an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) telephone, etc. includes awireless telephony transceiver 50 for communicating with wirelesstelephony base stations in accordance with principles known in the art.

The telephony transceiver 50 may be controlled by a telephone processor52 accessing data and/or computer instructions stored on a tangiblecomputer readable medium 54 such as solid state storage, disk storage,or other appropriate electronic storage. In some embodiments thetelephone 48 includes a position receiver 56 such as a globalpositioning satellite (GPS) receiver providing input to the telephoneprocessor 52, as well as a short range radiofrequency (RF) transceiver58 such as a Bluetooth transceiver communicating with the telephoneprocessor 54. The telephone 48 may also include a telephone display 60such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or light emitting diode (LED)display or other type of matrix display that is controlled by thetelephone processor 52, as well as a telephone keypad 62 for inputtinguser commands to the telephone processor 52. The above-describedtelephone components typically are contained on a portable hand-heldhousing 64.

With the above example system architecture in mind, attention is nowdrawn to FIG. 2, which illustrates logic some or all of which may beembodied in the computer-readable media described above. Commencing atblock 66, in some implementations the phone 48 can send a presencesignal to the TV system when the user, e.g., carries the phone into thehouse in which the TV system is disposed. This presence signal may beuser-generated or it may be in response to signals from the positionreceiver 56 informing the phone processor 52 that the phone is locatedin a user-defined geographic location at which the user wishes to usethe TV system for telephony purposes as described below. Yet again, thephone 48 may simply broadcast the presence signal periodically, or inresponse to being connected to a battery charger. In any case, thepresence signal may be sent via Bluetooth. Preferably, the TV systemacknowledges the presence signal to the telephone.

At block 68, in response to receiving the presence signal, the TV systemmay enable the telephone feature described below. In other embodimentsthe feature may always be enabled if unusable due to the absence of thetelephone 48. The logic of block 68 may be executed by one or both ofthe TV processor 24 and RC processor 34.

Moving to block 70, an incoming call to the telephone 48 is sent using,e.g., Bluetooth to the TV system. Recall that the presence signal sentby the telephone 12 preferably is acknowledged by the TV system, so thatthe telephone processor 52 knows that it is nearby the TV and, thus,that it is to relay calls to the TV system. The step at block 70 mayadditionally include, in addition to the automatic enabling oftelephone-to-TV system communication, a user input as well, allowing theuser, by means of a graphical user interface (GUI) presented on, e.g.,the TV display 16 or RC that can be automatically displayed upon receiptof the presence signal, to allow the user to select “yes” to enablingtelephone operation of the TV system.

The call is then displayed on the RC 14. Specifically, using Bluetooththe telephone 48 can send ring tones and voice signals to the TV 12,which can relay the signals to the RC. The signals may be displayed onthe TV speakers 20 and/or on the RC speaker 42.

Further, at block 72 a person holding the RC 14 can speak into themicrophone 40, and the RC 14 transmits Bluetooth signals representingthe person's voice at block 76. These signals are sent to the telephone48, which relays them over the telephony network. In this way, a personcan conduct a telephone conversation using the RC 14 as a repeater andthe telephone 48 as a relay node.

In some embodiments, only the TV 12 need have Bluetooth capabilities;signals, representing both TV command signals and voice signals, may beexchanged between the RC 14 and TV 12 using the infrared link providedby the IR transmitter 32 and IR receiver 28, with the TV 12 relayingvoice signals to the telephone 48. In other embodiments, both the TV 12and RC 14 have Bluetooth capabilities, exchanging voice-related signalson Bluetooth and TV command signals on the IR link with the TV 12relaying voice signals to the telephone 48. In still other embodiments,the RC 14 may communicate voice signals directly to the telephone 48using Bluetooth.

While the particular COMBINED TELEPHONE/TV REMOTE CONTROL is hereinshown and described in detail, it is to be understood that the subjectmatter which is encompassed by the present invention is limited only bythe claims.

1-7. (canceled)
 8. A TV remote control (RC) comprising: a hand-heldhousing; a keypad on the housing; a microphone in the housing; aprocessor in the housing and configured to receive signals from themicrophone and keypad; a TV remote control signal generator in thehousing and being controllable by the processor to send at least channelcontrol commands to the TV, the RC also configured to wirelesslytransmit signals representing voice signals received at the microphone;and a short range wireless transceiver in the housing, the transceiverconfigured to wirelessly transmit the signals representing voicesignals, the RC not containing a telephony transceiver.
 9. The RC ofclaim 8, wherein the remote control signal generator is an infraredsignal generator.
 10. The RC of claim 8, wherein the remote controlsignal generator is configured to wirelessly transmit the signalsrepresenting voice signals.
 11. (canceled)
 12. The RC of claim 8,further comprising at least one speaker on which telephony signals aredisplayed, the speaker receiving signals from the processor.
 13. Amethod, comprising: sending a presence signal via Bluetooth from amobile phone to a TV system spaced from the mobile phone; in response tothe presence signal, enabling a telephone feature in which phone callsto the phone are relayed to the TV system; inputting voice signals to aremote control (RC) associated with the TV, the RC being separatelyhoused from the phone; and relaying voice signals from the RC back tothe phone.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the TV system isconfigured to receive a presence signal from the wireless telephoneindicating the wireless telephone is nearby the TV system and inresponse enabling use of the RC as a telephone.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein the RC further comprises at least one speaker on whichtelephony signals are displayed.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein thevoice signals input to the RC are relayed back to the phone onBluetooth.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein a TV in the TV systemrelays signals between the RC and the wireless telephone.